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I came across this piece by
novelist Daniel Jose Older on not writing
every day. And my heart cheered Yes!
Yes. Yes to the nth degree. Earlier this month I had space in
my schedule. School for the kids had started; I had no medical writing
assignments in sight. I will write, I
thought. Who knows when I'll have this
time again? I had nothing to write about. No story in my head. No
matter—don't other writers just sit at the blank screen and stuff just pours out of them? Don't they
say that if you just sit your butt in the
chair and force yourself then the
words will come because it's just work
and willpower and moving those
fingers on the keyboard? Doesn't everyone say shitty first drafts and just
keep going and just do it--? I tried. It was a disaster. Because sometimes, as Daniel JoseOlder writes in his essay, the story you're working on just isn't ready to be
written yet. Because, as he says, "brainstorming is part of writing,
too." Every writer is …